Trailers are widely used to transport various materials. For example, tipper trailers and walking floor trailers are widely used to transport particulate bulk material such as gravel, stone, grain, and road salt. Dump trailers are also used for transporting such material, as well as other material such as garbage.
A typical tipper trailer, for example, employs some lifting means, such as hydraulics, to ‘tip’ a container of the trailer, that is to raise a forward end of a container of the trailer, nearest a trailer hitch or other means for coupling to a towing tractor, relative to a rear end of the trailer. In this way, a floor of the container is made to slope thereby to urge the bulk material to slide or roll out of a back opening of the container. A tailgate is typically provided to close the back opening to retain the bulk material during transport. The tailgate is typically mounted to the container at or near an upper end of the tailgate by means of some mounting mechanism such as hinges. When the container is tipped, the tailgate swings open by force of gravity thereby allowing the bulk material to empty through the back opening of the container. During transport the tailgate is typically held shut by a locking mechanism provided at or near a bottom of the tailgate. For example, the trailer may be provided with one or more moveable latches just below a bottom edge of the tailgate which in a dosed position hold the tailgate shut.
Walking floor trailers and dump trailers also typically have tailgates mounted at and upper or side edge of the tailgate, with locking mechanisms to hold the tailgate dosed during transport.
One problem with the design of typical trailers is that the mounting mechanism, such as hinges, by which the tailgate is mounted to the container allows for some amount of movement and of the tailgate during transport, including in a plane of the tailgate. As such, the tailgate tends to jostle and grind against other components such as the surfaces of the hinges and the locking mechanism. Over time such grinding causes wear and damage to the components which must eventually be repaired or replaced.
There is a material value, therefore, in techniques which limit the movement of a trailer tailgate during transport thereby to minimize wear and damage to cooperating components of the trailer such as mounting hinges and locking mechanisms.